So what?
There is still a difference between 1) selling aircraft to the military services and 2) direct subsidies for purely civilian airliner research and development-or to subsidize direct marketing for global sales, i.e. Airbus "Inc", Ltd/GmbH....never mind 3) paying bribe$ (baksheesh, anyone?) through second, third or fourth parties, in order to win sales in distant lands. Check an article in "the Economist" on the fairly recent Indian government scandal, amongst others, if still in the dark.
Whether there will be some overlap at Boeing is to be seen, but the enormous financial advantages for Airbus over many years, paid for partly by the already over-taxed citizens in France, Germany, Britain etc, are very clear.
The first order for the A-320 in the US, and a major order, happened while a former airline CEO was accused of taking bribes, via a "central" European politician buddy, who was eh... coincidentally..., on the board of Airbus. This was reported years ago in the "Wall Street Journal".
